Chapter 32: the Collective

C-1 faced the virtual screens as she twirled a strand of her dreads. She rocked in her chair, the rhythmic creaking putting the Collective at ease.

She stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Cindy asked from the warden’s workstation. Playing at making a C-6 bobblehead to complete the set of figurines.

“An annoying guy just arrived.” She glared at Murakami amongst the ensemble of mages at the main gate.

“A friend?”

“No, the Lord Protector and wherever he shows up the best technology the council controls closely follows. The council’s very own puppet Ironman.”

“Iron what?”

“Nevermind, we forget you’ve never read the scriptures.”

A transport carrier landed outside the gate.

‘Carrying siege machinery? They must know the tomb has rail guns.’

The carrier’s large door sliced open. Revealed the droids stacked within.

The mechanical troops marched out, forming up at the gate. C-1 leaned toward the screen to make sure her sight wasn’t malfunctioning.

She sucked in a cold breath. The Collective counted at least a two dozen droids.

‘They must have a mage skilled at droid controls.’

The Collective had seen minion style employed to such a scale only a handful of times. Too few mages could master droid controls to this scale. A once in generation skill M’Khabye had once told them.

‘Still isn’t enough though.’

There were slight tremors as the droids charged.

C-1 sneered and motioned to activate the rail gun protocols.

A rail gun turret slid out from the centre of the dome facing the main gate. The droids were spread out in an effort to minimize casualties.

‘They’re still grossly underestimating the impact range of the rail gun.’

C-1 aimed and fired at the stampeding robots.

Boom! A heavy shell hailed down and erupted at the centre of the charging pack.

The impact force instantly scrapped about a dozen droids. And many more were dented by the debris but still moving and only a handful remained unharmed.

Despite the casualties the remaining droids continued to sprint forward as if nothing was amiss. The attack would’ve demoralized any sane group of humans. There was absolutely no hesitation from the droids despite the onslaught they marched on, trampling over their fallen mechanical comrades.

It took a moment for the rail gun to reload and the remaining droids managed to make it halfway across the yard, where the road narrowed toward the entrance, funnelling the remaining droids together making the Collective’s next shot even more devastating.

C-1 smirked, aimed and launched the finishing blow.

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A droid took flight and propelled toward the rail gun as it fired.

Boom! The shell exploded prematurely as it collided with the suicide droid mid-air preventing any area of effect damage.

C-1 frowned as the remaining droids reached the tomb entrance.

‘Still they won’t be able to force their way through without any siege weapons.’

The golden armoured Lord Protector emerged from the crowd of droids. He was wielding a black metal shield. He aimed the shield at the tomb’s blatinum reinforced doors.

And an ominous feeling washed over the Collective.

“Flame on,” he said and the shield lit up in a glorious blaze of incorporeal flames. “Incinerate,” he added moments later.

The flames were sucked into the centre of the shield, took a second to compress and a beam of white light shot out, searing into the blatinum doors.

“Impossible!” C-1 spat as she watched the hard doors glow bright orange and slowly liquefy.

Blatinum had a melting point of some impressive number none of the Collective knew.

‘That’s no normal shield.’

But that was the least of her problems. The reinforcements were messing up her timeline. C-4 to 6 needed more time to drill their way out.

“Fuck!”

The rail gun reloaded. She made haste and aimed it down at the Murakami. Another sacrificial droid flew up and met the shell as it left the barrel.

“Fuck! Shit! Fuck!” C-1 cursed an ugly expression on her face.

Another premature explosion. At the cost of one measly kamikaze droid. Despite their frustration, the Collective could appreciate how despicable minion style was.

C-1 took a long breath to compose herself and tapped on the intercom.

“Greetings from your new warden, C-1.”

There was roar of approval from the prisoners scattered across the prison.

“Reinforcements have arrived and are trying to cut our fun short. Anyone looking for some action head down to the main entrance.”

Another roar as some inmates raced there. The Collective watched helplessly as some ignored her request. It was to be expected. The worst criminals were disobedient by nature. Not to mention some of the gang leaders were beginning to suspect they weren’t in the Collective’s escape plans after she abandoned them without access into the more secure parts of the prison.

“Breach!!!” A prisoner bellowed at the top of his lungs.

A droid flew through the opening, rolled and rose into a fighting stance.

A score of prisoners had gathered at the entrance hall. They charged the droid without consideration for formation or tactics, a mad dash fuelled by excitement and mob mentality. They were equipped with makeshift bats and a few wielded sick-sticks they’d looted off dead guards.

From the droid’s feet slots opened, shooting out a dozen or so tennis ball sized devices from either foot. They rolled on the ground quickly entered the dashing prisoners space.

“Grenade!!!” An inmate yelled however they were all caught unprepared. Too slow in switching from being the aggressors to being the defenders.

‘They’re just thugs after all.’

The grenade like devices didn’t explode instead electricity burst out. Wild currents crackled into the air, arced at random angles as they expanded.

“Shock grenades. They aren’t fucking around,” C-1 said, eyes glued to the virtual screen, observing from the safety of the warden’s office.

The wild currents electrocuted everyone within their webbed range. The affected inmates went into an epileptic like frenzy as electricity coursed through their veins.

Numerous scorched bodies fell lifelessly to ground. The bodies were charred and still smouldering as they hit the concrete floor. The whole vanguard of convicts eliminated in a moment.

The remaining prisoners hesitated but they weren’t given much time to be decisive.

Droid after droid popped out the opening. They performed a quick roll before standing up into a shooting stance with their shard guns drawn. They systematically locked onto different targets and opened fire. Crystalized shards of energy smashed into the inmates disorderly ranks, killing off more of the convicts.

Despite the inmates outnumbering the droids 4 to 1. The robot soldiers were like a plague come to spread death throughout the foyer. Their shard guns were lethal, blasted into the armourless inmates, ruptured through their skin and murdered each target with a single blast.

‘They won’t last long.’

“Run!!!”

A shout reverberated across the whole entrance hall as a prisoner dropped his sick-stick and fled back deeper into the prison. He was quickly joined by the remaining prisoners.

Whoever was controlling the droids was just as cold as the machines he commanded. He didn’t seem to care about the turn of events and only saw openings, ruthlessly shooting the inmates in the back as they ran. The droids chased behind the convicts, sniping on the move with robotic efficiency. The fleeing inmates were picked off one by one like zoo antelope during the hunting season.

C-1 shuddered, knuckles wrapped tight around the arm rests of her chair.

‘This is an execution.’

And they wouldn’t last long against such a ruthless assault. The Collective moved C-5 to help reinforce inmates against the droids.

‘We need to buy as much time as possible.’